More than ten people were arrested! Amazon joins hands with brands to fight against counterfeiting across borders

Recently, Amazon and its brand partner Brother cracked down on a counterfeit sales den in Germany and took legal action against 18 suspects.

It is understood that the suspects made a fortune by selling counterfeit printer toner cartridges on the Amazon platform, and consumers who shopped from them thought they were buying genuine products.

Many sellers have long complained that Amazon has not done enough to combat counterfeit products. But in fact, Amazon is very willing to work with brands to combat counterfeiting, and is even willing to spend a lot of time to launch large-scale cross-border operations.

The action with Brother marks a new milestone as it is the first civil lawsuit Amazon has filed jointly with a brand in Europe against counterfeit products.

Amazon said the lawsuit was filed with the Berlin Regional Court, accusing the defendants of colluding with each other to sell counterfeit products and evade tracking by Amazon and the Brother brand.

It is reported that this action was driven by Amazon's Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU), a global team with professional experience in investigating counterfeit sales and taking legal action to effectively protect the interests of consumers, sellers and brands. In addition to filing a lawsuit, the counterfeit sales gang was also handed over to the local police.

Kebharu Smith, Amazon’s director of anti-counterfeiting, said: “We have zero tolerance for counterfeiting on our platform. This is the first case of its kind we have filed in Europe and we will take aggressive action to hold people accountable no matter where they are.”

"In addition, we will continue to work side by side with businesses large and small to protect consumers from counterfeit products and brands from intellectual property infringement."

Isao Noji, general manager of Brother Europe, also said: "Consumers always come first. By working with Amazon, we can quickly crack down on merchants who copy our products and protect the interests of consumers."

The suspects allegedly purchased second-hand genuine Brother toner cartridges and refilled them with toner, so the cartridges looked like genuine products , but counterfeit products can damage printers and harm the environment.

In recent years, Amazon has been committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of brands and strictly prohibiting the sale of counterfeit products on its platform. In 2021, Amazon invested more than US$900 million and hired more than 12,000 employees, mainly responsible for investigating information on sellers of counterfeit goods.

It can be seen that Amazon is very determined to crack down on counterfeit sales. This also proves once again that if you want to run your store for a long time, it is not advisable to cut corners.

Amazon

Fighting against counterfeiting